Fresh & Easy chain loses more money, faces uncertain future

Not quite a convenience store and not quite a supermarket, F&E continues to be a headache for its British parent Tesco. Losses in 2010 topped $300 million, up 13 percent from the previous year. The chain was supposed to have broken even in 2010, but now that's been pushed back to 2012/2013. Some of this is simply bad luck - Fresh & Easy opened its first stores (many of them in Southern California) in the fall of 2007, right before the economy started to tank. While store sales have been growing, it's proven to be a very costly venture, more than Tesco had probably bargained for. The chain handles its own food preparation and packaging, which would pencil out a lot better if there were thousands of locations, not 200. Tesco CEO Philip Clarke has reaffirmed his commitment to the chain. (FT, OC Register)